Tuesday, November 25, 2014

For many years at 233 Bleecker, above one newsstand or another, there hung a vintage sign that read NEWSPAPERS - TOBACCO.

Today, with the space for rent, there's nothing but the ghost. The letters and Coca-Cola shields have been ripped down.

Here's how it looked until recently. And, before that, back in 2007.

I always liked seeing it as a I walked by, a piece of the past that had somehow, against all odds, persevered. It was a survivor. Maybe I identified with it. Seeing the sign, I would feel a sense of relief--I'm still here--thinking, "It's still there."

"What
is lost along with privilege signs is a sense of modesty and history.
They speak of a time when store owners did not emphasize who they were
as much as what they sold: fruits, vegetables, stationery, toys, candy
and sandwiches. They are a visual link to the years of the Great
Depression and World War II."

5 comments:

Gojira
said...

No, now you have to have aluminum and digital that winks, blinks, changes color, screams some bland name, to pull in the rubes who think "ooooh coooool!" and rush in to spend their parents' money on crap.

I have always loved those "Privilege Signs" - the colors, thee compact font, the wavy background, and especially the fact that they were of an era, so when you saw one of these signs you knew it was attached to a business that had been around for a long time. Sigh for the signs. :-(

Here is my attempt to provide a link to my photo taken in 1997 or 1998 of A&S Stationary, the original storefront and owners when the sign was installed. I especially like the owl statue on the upper right to scare the vermin away.

Help Us #SaveNYC

"Jeremiah's Vanishing New York has become the go-to hub for those who lament New York's loss of character." --Crain's

"Jeremiah Moss does an excellent job of cataloging all that’s constantly being sacrificed to the god of rising rents." --Hugo Lindgren, New York Times Magazine

"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss... Even as the changes he's cataloging break our hearts a little, it's that kind of lovely, precise writing that makes Moss's blog essential reading." --Village Voice, Best of NY

“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine

"One of the most thorough and pugnacious chroniclers of New York’s blandification." --The Atlantic, Citylab